The University Record, October 7, 1998
Program prepares students for careers in nonprofit arena
By Bernie DeGroat
News and Information Services
A new program established by the schools of Business, Public Policy and Social Work will help students better understand the role and management of non-profit and public organizations.
The Program in Non-profit and Public Management (NPM) will provide learning opportunities for graduate students interested in working or serving in the non-profit and public sectors. NPM-related courses are taught in eight schools and colleges, including business, public policy, social work, architecture and urban planning, education, information, natural resources and environment, and public health.
In addition, NPM will offer seminars, lectures and conferences on issues in the non-profit and public sectors, including a public talk next week by Frances Hesselbein, former CEO of the Girl Scouts of the U.S.A. and current president and CEO of the Peter F. Drucker Foundation for Non-profit Management. She will speak on the “Leadership and Vision in the World of Non-profit Organizations” at 4:30 p.m. Oct. 12 in Room K1320 of the Business School.
NPM faculty director Janet Weiss says the new program grew from a belief that there is a great deal of interest in non-profit and public management scattered across campus.
“There’s a lot of expertise both in the curriculum and in the research agendas of faculty in a number of areas, but people were not aware of all the activity going on elsewhere on campus,” says Weiss, a professor of business and public policy. “We started the program to create some synergy across these scattered activities and to stimulate more thoughtful consideration on how these pieces can be brought together in a way that is more exciting, gives us a little more visibility and serves students better.”
Weiss says that NPM will focus on enriching the existing curriculum in the master’s degree programs in business, public policy and social work.
For example, the School of Public Policy has developed a new public management concentration for its students; the Office of Career Planning & Placement will hold sessions on “Business Careers in Non-Profit Organizations” (5 p.m. Oct. 14) and on “Targeting Not-for-Profits with a Graduate Degree” (5 p.m. Oct. 21); and an executive skills session for serving on non-profit boards is planned at the Business School.
Social work Prof. Diane Kaplan Vinokur is faculty director of NPM. For more information, contact program coordinator Jacqueline Voigt, 763-4214 or [email protected], or consult the NPM Web page at www.umich.edu/~nonproft.
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